Laurabelle’s Blog

Wow, some people take Harry Potter way too seriously. (On the other hand, I like the use of Harry Potter to illustrate problems related to trust, since it may help to put abstract concepts into terms more people can understand.)

Personally, it doesn’t surprise me that Rowling’s universe isn’t consistent. She uses magic as a gimmick and as a cheap plot device, without much regard for what it will do to the series as a whole. In contrast, magic is ever-present in Willow, but it is a parlor trick, not sorcery, that saves the day. Sometimes magic just isn’t the best tool for the job.

(Willow came to mind because Jeff and I just finished watching it, but there are many other examples of good literary/artistic uses of magic. A Wizard of Earthsea, to cite an even more pertinent example.)

I can't decide whether I like Lisa Goldstein's Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon. I certainly don't dislike it, but it hasn't really grabbed me the way that some others have. Still, I can't stop thinking about it, turning it over in my mind.

Goldstein's urban fantasy novel is set in Elizabethan England, with historical characters like Queen Elizabeth and Christopher Marlowe juxtaposed against fantastical or anachronistic elements: fairies, dragons, and shotguns. The odd thing is that the magic doesn't drive the plot. It's there, of course, but the book isn't about magic. It's about the characters who, in their own ways, are all trying to make sense of their crazy world.

A few days ago I finished Robin McKinley's latest novel, Sunshine, which had been languishing on my shelf since December. It's a vampire novel, but it's strange in a very McKinley way (unlike Pete Hautman's Sweetblood, which is strange in an entirely different way). I wouldn't have expected McKinley to write a vampire novel, but if she were to do so, she'd write one like this, as of course she did. No, that sentence doesn't really make sense, but what I mean is that despite being a completely different genre from everything else that I've read of hers, it's very much her style.

I recently finished Juliet Marillier's latest novel, Wolfskin, which had been languishing on my holds list for months after I read her fabulous Sevenwaters Trilogy. I loved the Sevenwaters books and liked Wolfskin also but not quite as much, probably because her first trilogy is very much a woman's story as well as inspired by a fairy tale, and Wolfskin (also destined to be a trilogy, I believe) is a male Viking story.

Jeff and I saw The Return of the King, and it was great except for several glaring mistakes that ruined my suspension of disbelief. For example, the sword of Isildur was fragmented so badly that if it were repaired, it would be ugly as hell, not the shiny perfect blade shown in the movie. The most glaring mistake was the lava flow at the end; Frodo and Sam should have been baked by the heat. The overflowing lava was a change from Tolkein's version, and I wish that Jackson had left it alone.

The problem with changing bits of someone else's work is that the stuff you put back in doesn't have the same voice as the original bits. I cringed every time Liv Tyler made an appearance (damn actors' contracts). I also hated the soppy happily-ever-after scenes at the end; while I could accept cutting out the battle of the Shire, the replacement ending was so saccharine and meaningless that I wish I had left before the movie finished.

The saddest thing, I think, is that many people (both children and adults) will see the movie without ever having read the books. Maybe they'll read the books afterward, but if they do, they'll hate the books for the same reason I hate the movie: it's not the same. The shallowness of the movie will have corrupted their ability to appreciate the depth and complexity of the setting, characters, and plot in the book. On the other hand, maybe some of them will still like the books better. I certainly hope so.

Title:

Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism

Author:

Georgia Byng

Genre:

Chapter book

Audience:

8-10 years

Annotation:

Unstoppable, 10-year-old orphan Molly Moon uses her new-found talent for hypnotism to escape her orphanage for the excitement of New York and Broadway.

[This is my first reading-journal entry. Instead of writing another review for this book/trilogy, I figured I'd post the one I've already written. I'll keep posting these if I think they're interesting.]

Title:

The Amber Spyglass

Author:

Philip Pullman

Genre:

Chapter book

Audience:

11 years and up

When it became known to me that Jeff had never read The Princess Bride, I found him a used copy of it, which then lay around on a pile since Jeff is still busy reading the other books I've shoved at him (a Lovecraft collection and Smoke and Mirrors) as well as at least one book of his own that he wants to read (shock! horror!). The book was just sitting there, so I started rereading it, and then I checked out the 25^th-anniversary edition from KCLS.

I picked up this book at the ALISS booksale at the end of last week. I had never heard of the author before but thought it looked interesting. My verdict is that it's a decent book but probably not one whose sequel I care to read or that I will keep on my shelf.